Genesis’ Jaminet Pushed to ‘Keep His Feet’ in GT3 Racing

Photo: Gruppe C Photography/Porsche

Mathieu Jaminet said he pushed to ‘keep his feet’ in GT3 racing despite his move from Porsche to Genesis.

The Frenchman has returned to the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship paddock for the first time since being crowed GTP champion alongside Matt Campbell last year, having received a call up from Manthey to complete its GTD Pro lineup in this weekend’s Motul Petit Le Mans.

Jaminet has joined team regulars Thomas Preining and Klaus Bachler at the wheel of the No. 911 Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo, which had been familiar territory for the 31-year-old until his switch to the Korean manufacturer’s Hypercar program in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

However, it marks Jaminet’s third outing in a GT3-spec Porsche this year, after previously contesting both the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa and Suzuka 1000km in Bronze class entries from Herberth Motorsport and Earl Bamber Motorsport, respectively.

“It’s honestly great,” Jaminet told Sportscar365. “I’m super happy to do some GT races. At the end of the day it was only three races this year. They’ve all been a little bit last minute deals, to be honest.

“But I’m super happy that Genesis, in the end, has let me do this. It keeps my feet in a GT car.

“This is something I’ve pushed for and I really love to do.

“I’m happy when I got this call that there was a spot in the GTD Pro car with Thomas and Klaus and Manthey. There’s a lot of familiar faces from a few years ago in GT.

“Now it’s up to me to get back up to speed again.”

Jaminet, who is contesting the WEC season in the new-for-2026 Genesis GMR-001 Hypercar, said it’s taken some adjusting to re-acclimate himself with the production-based Porsche.

“In the three occasions, they’re all very demanding tracks, to be honest between Suzuka, Spa and here, they’re all very fast,” he said.

“Spa was a bit easier because I had a lot of experience and I did it the last few years so I had references in the car and knew the Pirelli tires.

“Suzuka was not easy, with not many laps in the dry, and in the end I didn’t really race because we had a technical issue, so I didn’t do many laps.

“Then coming back here and driving the Michelin [GT3] tires, I haven’t done that since 2022 during my GTD Pro championship.

“There were a lot of things to catch up on this morning when I did my first few laps in FP1.

“But I felt OK in the car and the pace seemed alright, so that’s a good start.”

Unlike his most recent GTD Pro outing at Petit Le Mans in 2022, where he and Campbell claimed a third place class finish and won the title with Pfaff Motorsports, Jaminet said he’s playing a third driver role this weekend, although has the same goals.

“This is why I came, to be honest, hoping to fight for a class win,” he said. “The car and team have shown good performance this year in each outing they’ve been competing in.

“They won Sebring and were pretty fast at Road America and Watkins they had bad luck.

“But I’m only a third driver here, so it’s not up to me these days to go try to fight for something in the end but hopefully we can have a clean race and I hope the car will be fast enough to have a shot at the end with Thomas or Klausy when it counts.”

Jaminet said he’s happy to both be back behind the wheel of a Porsche as well as returning Stateside.

“I thought I’d never sit back in a Porsche,” he said. “You never really know how it goes. I’m super happy to be back in the IMSA paddock.

“It’s something I really missed this year. This is why when the call came, I didn’t have to think one second.

“I was so happy to be back and just see so many familiar faces from different teams, journalists, fans that came this morning to see me.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John